Forza Horizon 2

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Grand Master

BajiRav

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Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-19-forza-horizon-2-proves-the-driving-genre-is-back-at-its-best
 
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Forza Horizon 2 proves the driving genre is back at its best

There have probably been better times to be pitching around ideas for a new racing game than the summer of 2010. Following the release of Bizarre Creation's Blur and Black Rock Studios' Split/Second - both excellent, forward-thinking takes on a genre that's famous for going round in circles, both failing to find an audience - racing games were entering a period of crisis. For Bizarre and Black Rock, the crisis would prove fatal. For Playground Games, a UK studio formed late in 2009 by veterans of the genre from Codemasters, it made getting its first project off the ground daunting.

"It was not a good time to be a racing developer," says Ralph Fulton, one of Playground Games' founders, as he looks back at the studio's early days. "It wasn't a good time to be pitching racing games to publishers. More than one told us that racing is dead, that they didn't want anything to do with it. There were a number of times over that period that were really difficult for everyone involved. In those situations you always have to come back to: why am I doing this? Why did I get into this, and what are we hoping to achieve?"

Playground Games kept on doing it because it had some ideas on what would make a great racing game and a certain amount of confidence that it had the team to make them happen. "We started with not a great deal - not a lot of money, not a deal, not anything like that - but we had a strong group of people who had been working with each other, in some cases, for 10 years. We had a heritage making racing games and that felt like the right thing to do. We felt, if we had a strong team - which we did - we'd prevail. We'd find the right partner and we'd find the right project."

The studio found a partner in Turn 10 and a project in Forza Horizon, an open-world entry into Microsoft's driving franchise. Made in 18 months - a mere sprint compared to the marathon of most games' development - 2012's Horizon was a success. "Forza Horizon is built on the best parts of the Motorsport games but delivers a strikingly different experience to them," wrote Oli in our review. "In many ways, it's a better one." Judging from Playground's light, airy office, which occupies three floors of a stately Leamington Spa building and threatens to take over the police station next door, it didn't do too badly commercially, either.

It was successful enough for a sequel, at the very least. Forza Horizon 2 transposes the open-world racing of the original from craggy, picturesque Colorado to the sweeping, heart-stopping roads of southern France and northern Italy. It's a move that has instilled a little more pastoral beauty in Horizon's cross-country rides and introduced stirring coastlines as iconic as anything the American West can offer; an extended tunnel that amplifies the exhaust note opens up to the hills above Nice, the city twinkling below like a pool of stars.

Forza Horizon 2 also marks the transposition of the open world from Xbox 360 to Xbox One, though it's not quite the studio's debut on the console. Thanks to the close relationship between Turn 10 and Playground, where build servers are shared between the two, several of the team gained experience of Microsoft's new console on Forza Motorsport 5. You can see some of that experience pay off in the gorgeous visuals of Forza Horizon 2 - though Fulton also tells me it's thanks to Forward + Rendering, a new system being used in the game - where the lights of a city at night dance dynamically off freshly dampened streets.

It's a fine-looking world, complete with dynamic weather systems that cross the large map, and it's perhaps one of the finest spectacles you'll find on Microsoft's new console this year. It's a beauty served up more generously than in last year's Forza Motorsport 5, even if it doesn't share the same 60fps refresh rate of Turn 10's game. "It was a question we asked again," says Fulton when asked whether it was ever an option to go for 60fps with the new hardware at hand. "Does this new platform mean we should change something? We went through the same process, and we alighted on the same decision.

 
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Neowin Forza Horizon 2 Club

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Tidosho

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FH2 looks awesome! I loved the first one, but the graphics look simply stunning on Xbox One! I can't wait till September! I just wish we didn't have to wait for 2015 for F1 2014, Go figure! GRID: Autosport would have looked awesome on it too, Codies missed a trick, I play it on my 360 wishing it was on my One.

 

Look forward to playing against fellow Forza'ers :)

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
Posted

This will probably be the game that convinces me to buy an X1.  Love the first one.

This game is coming out for the 360 too (of course there are some differences between the X1 and X360 versions).

 

Alright, time to pre-order this game...Forza 5 is interesting and definitely has some huge flaws/quirks. I can't wait for this one. 

Veteran

GotBored

Posted
Posted

It actually looks very good, it also makes me want to go to southern europe and drive around the landscapes are amazing. It was a good choice for the game.

 

I might just pick it up for the Xbox 360, as its the only exclusive game apart from Sunset Overdrive on the XOne that I want to play. But the more games that come the more appealing it gets.

 

I prefer arcade racers rather than simulators and this looks good, also I'm soo going to race in that VW Van. lol. :laugh:

Grand Master

123456789A

Posted
Posted

It actually looks very good, it also makes me want to go to southern europe and drive around the landscapes are amazing. It was a good choice for the game.

 

I might just pick it up for the Xbox 360, as its the only exclusive game apart from Sunset Overdrive on the XOne that I want to play. But the more games that come the more appealing it gets.

 

I prefer arcade racers rather than simulators and this looks good, also I'm soo going to race in that VW Van. lol. :laugh:

 

omg get it on the One so you can play with me.

Enthusiast

shastasheen

Posted
Posted

Hopefully its not ruined like fm5 was with micro-transactions and the "grinding"

I think they learned their lesson pretty quickly with the free credits, doubling the credit payouts etc, just a few weeks after the release. The only issue I have with driving games now is you have to be in that mental space to keep playing and staying in that mindset. You sort of have to focus on that game and that game only (for me anyway). If you walk away for a few weeks it's hard to hop into an S class and pick up right where you left off.

Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

How I wish I could purchase some sort of adapter so the Wireless Racing Wheel from the 360 worked on the One.

Same goes for my Logitech GT Racing wheel from PS3 to PS4.

 

I love racers enough to pick up wheels for the genre, but damn purchasing a wheel for each console generation sucks.

 

Have had this game pre-ordered now for quite some time from MS directly. Definitely looking forward to it.

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
Posted

Hopefully its not ruined like fm5 was with micro-transactions and the "grinding"

I played F3, F4, FH, and now F5 - I actually got 4.6 million in credits when I started on F5. Plenty of credits to do a whole lot, but yeah paid add-ons can be annoying. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Grand Master

Hedon

Posted
Posted

Horizon 2 does look awesome. Forza 5 was rushed, this looks like what Xbox fans have been waiting for.

Rushed as far as amount of content goes, yes. Quality, it's the best Forza  yet.

 

Horizon 2 will probably end up being the racer of the year this year.

Grand Master

Skiver Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Rushed as far as amount of content goes, yes. Quality, it's the best Forza  yet.

 

Horizon 2 will probably end up being the racer of the year this year.

 

I wouldn't count Project C.A.R.S out just yet, that game looks pretty spectacular! 

 

As much as this game looks awesome, I got very bored of FH1 very quickly and never bothered to complete it. Might still pick it up but it's questionable.

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Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

Posted
  • MVC
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Glorious...my god!

My jaw just dropped, certainly the nicest looking Xbox One game to date I think!

I'm a little disappointed it's not 60fps however, Need for Speed Rivals at 30fps was so slow and jerky compared to Forza 5 running at 60fps.

However I will reserve judgement until i've played the demo. Either way the demo would have to be really bad for me to cancel my pre-order.

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